Giant
Giants are the hume kin of the tallest stature. They range from as tall as a tree to as tall as the clouds. The average giant is 10 ft tall. The larger cultures can be confused with ettins—leading some to surmise that the largest stocks of the two are indeed the link between thurses and humes. Giants have interbred with thurses, particularly ettins, producing the yotun. Diet Much like other large apex predators and those of megafaunal size, giants eat primarily herd ruminants. Unlike dragons, for example, giants are omnivorous and have digestive systems adapted to eat trees. One favorite food of giants is to grab a handful out of a flock of passing birds and crush them together in a paste that is licked off the hand. In some cultures more preparation will be involved yielding a bird paste much like mincemeat, with soft branches and giant mushrooms blended in. If the fat of any monstrous beasts is available, that is a much loved addition. Impact Giants indeed have a visible impact on the terrain and environment. Footprints are constantly left behind in their territory, leading even to giant paths where they've tread the grass to the point it cannot sustain its life. In response, many giants are prone to laying paths using nearby stone (even if from the buildings of smaller races) so they do not have to walk in the mud. When confronting their prey and megafaunal predators, the resulting scuffles can lead to forests being crushed, indentations in hills, and rock formations being smashed. The games of giants easily produce this sort of damage as well. When the taller giants walk near settlements, their steps can be perceived as a rhythmic earthquake. Giants take special precaution though to not trip on certain plants, rocks, or other objects as falls are usually fatal for them. (So they say: "The taller they are the harder they fall.") They have developed various cultures of taboo for particular perceived tripping hazards. Anatomy Giants generally range from 8 to 100 ft tall, but can exceed even that. Around 100 ft and beyond, their anatomy is significantly altered. Different populations have achieved to the greater, monumental heights in those areas. Giants never stop growing for their entire lives. On average, the largest giants are thus the oldest giants. *Robust, stubby feet cf. *Graviportal *Vertebral pneumaticity *Large noses *Adaptive proportions *Wrinkly skin *Bones made of harder, and possibly also lighter, material *Large fold in skull around brain hemispheres (butt shape) *High ridge of the skull *Prominent brow ridge *Large, saggy ears with significantly detached lobes *Other cooling structures Cf. to brachiosaurs, 60 ft high feasible. 60-100 range more difficult, unless all implicitly ice (cooling) and/or earth (stability) mages. Giants have been known to crossbreed with gorgons, yielding offspring with significant serptine limbs, namley naga-like lower limbs. Distribution Giants tend to live in more northern climates, increasing in size with the decrease in temperature. Thus the giants (and cyclopses) of Arcaitia are the on average the shortest, while those of the icy reaches of Tanus, in Ogreland, are the largest. Some giants live on floating islands, reached by heroic figures by various magical means. Cultures *Ganta *Gigas *Reese *Reuse *Thune *Giger/Geeger *Eeweeth (forest giants) *Inwid *"Frost Giants" *"Mountian Giants" *"Aeld Giants" ('fire/pyre' not 'old') *"Sleeping Giants" Interaction Giants have been valued by smaller races for their engagement with dragons, fighting them for territory. Giants have also come to the aid of small races against titanic monsters. Most often, though, small races strive to hunt and bring down giants, but they are rarely successful against those reaching 20 ft or more. Small people become like pinpricks, bee stings to them and the bees are swatted away. Larger advances against giants usually result in the giant seeing the engines of the feisty ones and merely walking in the other direction, until they are far enough not to incite any more aggression. Those giants that don't rarely survive such a mobilized encounter. In any area that people have increased the populations of livestock, giants are amenable to exchange their building capabilities for an allotment of food. In Falken there are even risigarten where the lushest trees favored by giants are grown as food to bargin for builders. Gallery 'Odenna and Ellador' Giants_and_Freia.jpg rock-giant.jpg 6862.jpeg Walter_Crane_King_Arthur_and_the_Giant_Book_I,_Canto_VIII.jpg M002744.jpg 28418d2aaf39d9db50df9ca98fe6e84d.jpg 775629e9920c06498d70f0b5831d5e3d.jpg 7985238b7b8c22c6fb2d39eda2d150e5.jpg FCP PP C7 (250).jpg ba96c01d0b28d1f9dbce6a6091697a59.jpg thor_vs_a_giant_colored_by_bear65.jpg The+Exodus+of+Giants-BlogOK2.jpg|10,000 Foot Giants faa71ed94f1a9f8787858ad4373e7a12.jpg giant1.jpg c1cf86b26d84dc1db83afe8355a01ca7.jpg Fafnir_the_Frost_Giant_.jpg 220px-Francisco_de_Goya,_Saturno_devorando_a_su_hijo_(1819-1823).jpg P1060011a.jpg 026e4fce9ddbfeda0d3cba675fd169e6.jpg 108f56dd-11e2-4513-9ced-389b66ff3931.jpg e256862d88446abf7599afdba5ca79b7.jpg kamthorsjourney.jpg sheep-eating-giant1.jpg friendly_giant_by_iancjw-d4889ur.jpg Ondu-Giant-Enclave-Cryptologist.jpg f633ec4a066404c763198ca799951bef.jpg 585a54af3bfa574ec8c95463dc1a023d.jpg 23690.jpg 2514410973_bc52735bb2_z.jpg giants.jpg The_giant_with_the_flaming_sword_by_Dollman.jpg frost_giants_attack_by_faile35.jpg tumblr_mj1nl3BrPr1qhtuebo1_1280.jpg borthax_by_elmst000-d8lank7.jpg c6ae5bf7cc6334701171e69217896201.jpg giant_despair_beats_the_pilgrims_by_longbow1415-d5j3v88.jpg giant-fantasy-cool-fantasy-picture-hd-quality-32jhuz4qf6j6eif68tph56.jpg 234dd0b24c22e193975d39911184fb63.jpg 140fece2762c47d633f31a8780f7e883.jpg 6c5639a1bc80c76f7c2e091c9862d8e8.jpg 1b86c18db72c7dd22f32aa0984137911.jpg baldtattgiant.jpg 145918.jpg attachment-1.jpg|Troll or Gnome Blooded 101047.jpg thor_glove.gif M002769.jpg pilgrims-attacking-giant-despair-from-the-pilgrims-progress-by-john-EKXH0R.jpg latest-1.png 278350.jpg giant-despair-pilgrims-progress-238x300.png jack-the-giant-slayer-movie_426938.jpg pilgrims_progress_53.jpg pilgrims-giant.PNG the-pilgrims-found-by-giant-despair-from-the-book-the-pilgrims-progress-B7M9X2.jpg great-heart-and-his-companions-attack-giant-slay-good-illustration-from-the-pilgrim-s-progress.jpg colossus_town_defender__fantasy_giant__by_idaisan-d7p2hbe.jpg|Central Elladoren giant_hunter_s_handbook_cover_by_jasonengle-d859e1x.jpg|Mountain Elladoren Osmar_Schindler_David_und_Goliath.jpg|Ashani Giant 'Taicra' ' Ff0f52d1294acd0066b7bd320593f31e.jpg 81f242fa8ed7cac466b64f28bad10228.jpg|Nysian Giant mountains army giant fantasy art_www.wall321.com_65.jpg ' Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_(mythology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachiosaurus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauroposeidon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants_(Greek_mythology) Category:Humes Category:Kins Category:Giants